1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to network management and specifically relates to troubleshooting network devices that use the Fibre Channel (“FC”) protocol.
2. Description of Related Art
Network devices occasionally malfunction. Such malfunctions can result in the network devices going down, in congestion of traffic on the network and in other negative effects. When such malfunctions occur, network managers need to analyze traffic on one or more network devices in order to troubleshoot the problem. Moreover, network traffic should be analyzed in other situations, such as during a system upgrade, when bringing up a network, for monitoring a network, etc.
FC protocol is increasingly used for storage area networks and similar networks. One such device used as a fabric network device for storage area networks is a Multi-layer Data Switch (“MDS”), manufactured by Cisco Systems, Inc. Data ingress and egress the MDS in FC protocol via FC ports. Accordingly, when a network manager needs to troubleshoot a problem with a network device that is using FC protocol, the device used by the network manager must be able to capture and analyze frames in FC protocol. (The terms “frame” and “packet” are equivalent as used herein.)
Currently, devices known as FC analyzers are available for capturing and analyzing data from an FC port. An FC analyzer is configured to receive FC frames from a network device and to allow an engineer, network administrator, etc., to view and analyze the FC frames. By analyzing the FC frames and determining the types of errors associated with the FC frames, it is normally possible to deduce the underlying problems with the network. However, FC analyzers are rather expensive. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a less expensive device for the analysis of FC frames.